Orchestra of St. Luke’sBel Canto Young ArtistsWill Crutchfield, conductor and Director of Opera

Bel Canto at Caramoor and Maestro Will Crutchfield present an uncut production of Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes, sung in French. Returning artists Angela Meade and John Osborn head the cast. This semi-staged concert performance will be preceded by lectures and recitals in the Spanish Courtyard.

Pre-Opera Events. Free for ticket holders.

2:30pm Le chant héroïque (Heroic French Singing)Will Crutchfield presents a selection of rare recordings illustrating the vocalism that made Verdi and French a natural fit, including the voices of twelve singers who collaborated personally with the composer in Paris. When we think of French singing in the abstract, we probably think of elegance and finesse more than of heroic force and brilliance. But all those things coexisted in a style that survived for generations, only to disappear in the mid-20th century.

3:30pm Les italiens à Paris (The Italians in Paris)The Caramoor Bel Canto Young Artists sketch this history in a recital of music written for Paris by Piccini, Sacchini, Cherubini, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Mercadante, Verdi and others. French opera has had some Italian DNA at least since 1672, when Louis XIV put a Florentine, Giovanni Battista Lulli, in charge of it. About a century later, the prosperity and variety of Paris's operatic life became a steady magnet for composers from opera's homeland.

4:30pm L'Opêra (The Paris Opera)The second Young Artist recital of the afternoon explores Verdi’s presentation of Les vêpres siciliennes in 1855 when he was writing to a tradition of grand opéra at its grandest. The style was developed in the 1830s and 40s by Halévy, Auber and Meyerbeer, whose works will be heard in this program.